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NYC; Un-Safir Races The Clock

NEW YORK CITY'S new police commissioner shook his head as he heard himself introduced yesterday as ''suddenly one of the most famous, well-known and recognized people'' in town.

Not true, not true, the body language said. And as soon as he took his turn at the lectern, Bernard B. Kerik made the point more forcefully. ''I just want to make one thing clear,'' he said. ''I'd rather not be someone that everybody wants to know about.''

Sorry, sir. To borrow from the esteemed philosopher Mick Jagger, you can't always get what you want.

The mayor aside, who on the municipal payroll is more an object of curiosity and controversy than the top cop? That goes even for a commissioner who was a lame duck from the moment he took the oath of office barely a month ago. Maybe it goes especially for an instant lame duck. In some respects, Mr. Kerik has a greater burden than his predecessors to prove himself. With the sands running out on the Giuliani City Hall, he has a mere 15 months left to make his mark.

Still, a few conclusions about him seemed reasonable after watching his maiden performance before the New York Press Club, which met yesterday in a converted carriage house on East 38th Street.

For starters, whether by nature or design, Mr. Kerik has clearly set out as the un-Safir.

He was at ease in talking with reporters (not that their questions were particularly rough). In contrast, the previous commissioner, Howard Safir, seemed ever on the defensive. If things went wrong, his instinct was to blame the news media, politicians or other unworthy sorts. Sometimes, he blamed them even when things were going right.

Nor was Mr. Safir blessed with what you would call perfect pitch. There he was, head of a department that frowns on an officer taking so much as a tuna fish sandwich from the corner diner. Yet off he flew to the Oscars last year, with the $7,000 tab picked up by the president of Revlon. After the city's Conflict of Interest Board got around to rebuking Mr. Safir last month, he concluded that he had somehow been ''vindicated.''

Listening to Mr. Kerik yesterday, it was hard to imagine him getting it so spectacularly wrong.

He also seemed intent on showing that, within bounds, he could be his own man. Not once did he mention Rudolph W. Giuliani by name. For sure, he referred to ''the mayor'' several times, including once when he said that ''sometimes the mayor doesn't get the credit that he deserves.'' But he was nowhere near the hagiographer that most top officials believe they must be whenever they mention Mr. Giuliani, who encourages the idea that virtue was unknown at City Hall until his ascension.

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It is not surprising then that Mr. Kerik has found himself, for now, praised by people who normally talk about the Police Department as though its emblem were a jackboot. Joining this chorus was the usually negative group called 100 Black Men in Law Enforcement Who Care, which held a news conference to give its opinion on Mr. Kerik (apparently on the assumption that there were 100 people out there who cared).

WHAT does all this hold for crime-fighting over the next year? Hard to say. If Mr. Kerik has grand new strategies in store, he kept them to himself yesterday.

He hinted at possibly changing the aggressive ''stop and frisk'' policies that have led to many gun confiscations, but also to the disastrous police killing of Amadou Diallo. ''It's something I will look at,'' he said. But in the same breath, he said he did not share a widely held view that ''stop and frisk'' was responsible in large measure for shaky police relations with minority groups.

The commissioner also saw no reason to require all officers to live in the five boroughs. ''I came from New Jersey, and I've done O.K.,'' said Mr. Kerik, a former undercover narcotics detective. And while improving community relations is a priority, he said, he was not about ''to talk to those that have their own personal and political agendas.'' In other words, don't expect his headquarters to roll out a carpet all of sudden for the likes of the Rev. Al Sharpton, who criticized the Kerik appointment when it was made, if only because City Hall had the nerve -- the nerve -- not to consult him first.

One problem for an instant lame duck is that opportunities to play the hero may be few. If crime stays relatively low, credit will go to policies put in place under Mr. Safir and William J. Bratton.

But just let the mayhem soar, and Mr. Kerik is sure to hear about it. And soon.

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A version of this article appears in print on September 27, 2000, on Page B00003 of the National edition with the headline: NYC; Un-Safir Races The Clock. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe